“This evening, after supper, we sat talking about the work Natalie and Janet are doing on the farm. Natalie started a vegetable garden soon after she arrived at the farm, and now you ought to see those beds! Really, you would be amazed to see how the cuttings and seeds Natalie planted are growing. She says she is going to sell the produce to the scouts at camp, and to Rachel, for the house-table. If there is more than enough to supply these needs, she is going to send it to New York to friends to buy. In this way she expects to earn enough money during the summer to pay for her own board and keep. Then Jimmy (Mrs. James, you know) can save the cost of Nat’s board and deposit it in the bank for her future.
“When Janet found Natalie was working for a living in such a delightful way, she, too, got the idea of starting something to earn her living this summer, and save the board money that her folks send every week to Jimmy, for a future college education. Janet started a stock farm. She bought three darling little pink pigs and some chickens. She expects to sell the eggs the hens lay, and sell the broilers the setting hens will soon hatch out for her. This will bring in ready money every day, and in a short time she will be able to buy a cow, a calf, a lot of ducks, geese and turkeys, and maybe some sheep and everything else that belongs to stock work on a farm.
“You really won’t believe how much money Janet will have by the end of this summer, all cleared out of the stock investment. But she proved it to me by showing me the actual figures on paper. Eggs are so expensive now, and broilers, too, always bring a fancy price in the market. Then, when she sells the milk, butter and cheese from the cow, the squabs from the pigeons, the ducks, geese and turkeys at Thanksgiving time, she will be repaid for her labor during the summer. The three pigs will fatten and grow without any care or cost to Janet, as they just eat whatever is left from the house; but pork brings awfully high prices when sold, so Janet will clear about a hundred and fifty dollars on her three pigs, when she sells them to the butcher. I wish I had been here first, and had had the opportunity to start a stock farm such as Janet has.
“But I suppose I would have made a failure of it, as I love to dream and idealize things. And Janet certainly can’t sit and idealize pigs and cows and such creatures, because I watched her tonight—she almost cried because she forgot to feed the pigs their supper, and they squealed unmercifully for hours until she mixed the corn-meal mush and carried it to them.
“It was suggested by Jimmy that I cultivate flowers in the beds already laid out but, thus far, nothing is planted in them. There are several hardy shrubs and flowers that come up every year which were left here by the former tenant, but they need pruning and cleaning out before they will look tidy and thrifty. Jimmy says she will help me all she can in the flower-gardening, so I have decided to try it, anyway.
“Natalie told me that Mrs. Tompkins, the wife of the man who owns the post office store, offered to give them all the slips and cuttings we needed to plant around the house at Green Hill. I am sending to a large seed store in New York, for a catalogue of their seeds and flowers, and will choose those which will grow quickly, as it is July and several months have been lost before I got here.
“Nat said that Mrs. Tompkins has the most beautiful flower gardens back of the house! I am going there to visit her and see her flowers. Jimmy thinks this work is just suited to my temperament, as I always loved flowers, and feel quite enthusiastic over the prospect of growing them and taking care of them. I couldn’t see where any profit could come to me out of the work of planting and watching over the flowers, but Jimmy says there are as many ways for me to dispose of my flowers for money, as it is possible for Natalie to sell vegetables, or Janet to sell stock.
“Before you see your dreamy Norma again, she will be a professional floriculturist. As a beginning in the business, Mrs. James authorized me to take charge of the landscaping of the grounds about the house. I am also going to have charge of the lawns. To keep the grass cut short and the edges trimmed neatly, and the people from walking across the grass and wearing footpaths over the lawn. I am to be paid for all garden or lawn work, the same as Farmer Ames charges the household for his time. Jimmy also told me that I shall be paid for any work I am asked to do about the place, whether it is helping Natalie weed or plant her vegetable gardens, or doing odd jobs.
“But the flower beds will be all my own to do with as I like, so there will be no pay for planting or raising flowers. It is such fascinating work—this flower seeding and planting, that I count every moment as wasted when I am not doing something to improve the garden or lawns.
“Mrs. James is the heart of everything at Green Hill Farm, from Rachel as house-worker, down to the dog, Grip, who belongs to Sam, the handy man; everything turns to her for advice and help. What would we all do without her?” * * *